Valhalla
by ProfessorCactustheThird
Summary: The La Plaga is back and thirsty for revenge, but when the ransom payout goes all wrong again, the team might end up losing each other in more ways than one...
1. 1: Intro

_Mary (happycurtis on tumblr) and I were just throwing around fic ideas and this one stuck. We don't own Scorpion, or the inspiration behind this plot, but we thought it's be fun to play around with (:_

 _((If you're familiar with criminal minds then you'll probably be able to guess what happens, but no spoilers please!))_

* * *

"Hey," Happy made a detour at her boyfriend's desk before heading out to the back to fix Walter's sad excuse of a car. "You free tomorrow?"

Toby pushed his chair a little away from his desk and leaned back, opening his arms. "Aww Hap, you know I have nothing better to do than you." He wanted to continue, but Happy made sure he saw how her grip tightened around the titanium hammer and he made the wise decision to stop.

"They're closing some of the subway lines tomorrow for maintenance, and since you've been asking so much about the urban exploring I mentioned a while back…"

"But you said there were rats in there! And more rats!"

She looked at him pointedly. "You have a ferret sleeping on your lap."

"But it's Bueller! And in case you don't remember, he's our lucky ferret." He winked.

Looking around to make sure nobody was watching, Happy hopped up on his desk and leaned closer. "If you agree to come tomorrow, I'll make you even luckier tonight."

Toby grinned lasciviously, and Happy cursed herself for not choosing her words better. "In that case, I'll make sure I come tonight as well, if you know what I-"

The front door slammed open and Cabe walked in with Cooper close behind. "We got a case! And this is serious so don't mess around!"

The team gathered around the computer terminal and their jaws dropped at the familiar faces on the screen.

"Well hello," Toby said, turning to his girlfriend. "Look Hap, your favourite people in the world. After me, of course." Happy rolled her eyes and hit Toby's arm hard enough to direct his focus back to Cooper, his trademark cheeky grin the furthest apology he'd give.

"As I was trying to say," Cooper glared at Toby, annoyed at the interruption but frankly not expecting anything less from these geniuses anymore. "TheLa Plaga cartel has expanded their operations to SoCal." She opened her mouth again to continue, but Cabe beat her to it.

"More specifically, they've expanded their operations to you."

"Well they certainly chose the right name," Toby remarked. "Those men are like weeds you can't kill."

Cabe stepped up, being more familiar with the original case than his boss. "It's not about drugs or hostages this time, it's about revenge. Long story short, they don't appreciate people stealing their hostages, embarrassing them in their own territory, and trying to let their rookie escape."

"I told you Mexico was a bad idea," Sylvester spoke up. "Why did we have to piss them off? All it did was give Walter a Ferrari to drive off of a cliff-"

"Hey! There were extenuating circumstances."

"-and now this. _Armed mercenaries_ are too afraid of them! I knew we shouldn't have taken the job in the first place."

"Oh please," Toby took the opportunity to jump back into the conversation. "You were too busy buying a knockoff cuckoo clock."

"A knockoff cuckoo clock that saved your life."

"You thought a gun was a dust buster."

"It was a mass-produced diode duct taped onto a tablet, not a precise infrared-"

" _Can we_ _just_ ," Cooper interrupted and between the tone, her clenched fists and increased breathing rate, Toby could tell that if they continued much longer she'd have a stroke. Raising his hands up in surrender, he nodded for her to continue.

"Their request is fairly straightforward. They want us to give them the money they could've gotten if we hadn't saved Zoe. So we just need to lure them into a fake ransom payment and then come up with a way to trap and arrest them, hopefully without too many shots being fired."

" _Fake_ ransom payment?" Toby was on a roll, and Happy was sure she was going to kill him when they got home. "Can't sugar daddy bail us out?"

Walter sighed. "Elia's currently low on funds, after his mostly failed venture with the smart tech-"

" _Mostly_ failed? I can't remember there being a _sliver_ of success in that house of horrors. But then again, I was deprived of oxygen for three minutes so who knows how much I've forgotten."

"Toby, you of all people would know that three minutes has minimal to no impact on brain functions."

"Love how you're so sure of that, Walt. Do you want to try? Because I can arrange for that right-"

"Mr O'Brien and Mr Curtis, _please_." The deputy director was at her wits end.

"Should I mention it's Dr., or will she blow a neuro-capillary?" Toby leaned over to whisper to Happy, who had long since mastered the art of ignoring her boyfriend.

"Right." Walter swung right back into business. "We need a drop off location."

Walter turned to Sylvester on the computer. "Think isolated. Exit routes."

"Eliminate areas near homes - too quiet, too easy to follow, " Toby contributed. "So think somewhere near highways."

"Got it!" Sylvester looked up from his computer terminal. "There's a spot just two point one-four miles from the docks, an abandoned warehouse lot that runs parallel to the highway, with its own exit. There are loads of service roads leading up to it too, so backup can come in whichever way the cartel doesn't."

Toby said, "We have to make them believe that _they've_ chosen the location. A false sense of security and control over the situation will make them lower their guard, at least in the slightest. That'll be all we need to work our magic."

"And what about the money?" Paige asked. "I mean, I know we're not going to let them get away with it, but if even Elia can't spare a few million as bait-"

"Ooh! I got a new Monopoly set last week and I was wondering what to do with the old one. Good thing it still has most of the notes."

Happy wasn't the only one ready to strangle Toby when Walter unexpectedly took his side. "Yes," Walter said, brain piecing the puzzle they couldn't see. "It'll be enough to resemble a briefcase containing the ransom."

" _What?_ " Nobody else, not even Toby himself, had actually thought Walter would buy into it.

Walter shrugged in his usual nonchalant way. "We need something to substitute actual cash, and Monopoly money is a cheap, risk-free substitute."

"They'll hardly believe that we're handing over the money that easily."

"They don't have to. We show it from say, two point eight metres and they'll hardly be able to tell the difference. They just need to be occupied until backup arrives."

"Unless they open it to find Rich Uncle Pennybags instead of Franklin," Sylvester said, undoubtedly concerned. "And all hell breaks loose."

"Come on Sylvester, this is hardly the riskiest thing we've done." Walter tried to coax him and to be fair, Sylvester couldn't disagree.

"Alright," Happy pulled up a map of the docks on the main screen. "So we'll get into position here and here."

Cabe, on his phone, called out to Sly. "Sylvester, I need you to somehow track any one of their devices or the signal from the wired cash they took. We need them tracked, backup can't be sitting on the sidelines before they show up or we'll blow our cover."

"Wait," Sylvester called out nervously as he followed Cabe. "What did you mean earlier by without _too many_ shots being fired?"

* * *

 _Hope you guys enjoyed it! We'll be updating pretty frequently, and the future chapters will get longer, so hope you stick around!_

 _Comments will help us improve, so please do if you can spare a moment... Thanks! (:_


	2. 2: Ransom

_The ransom payout aka where it all goes to hell_

* * *

Happy stood with Paige beside the empty warehouse, hidden from view behind an old, rusty green water tank, pliers hung loosely by her side.

"I shouldn't be here," Paige said, worry emanating from her, tangling itself around Happy. They both looked out from behind the tank to where Walter, Cabe and Toby waited beside the van.

"Should I take offense?" Happy asked, not a trace of offense in her voice as she changed her grip on the pliers.

Paige shook her head, her hair falling around her face. "Of course not. Both of us just know that those three over there need all the EQ help they need."

Happy understood this but Toby felt far too uncomfortable with her being by herself, where nobody could see her and was easily outnumbered.

Sly, who was sitting inside the van, instructed by Cabe to lie on his back as to not be seen, came through their comms and Happy leaned back against the wall. "I just picked up the signal from the wired cash that the kid ran away with the last time."

"Who still carries actual money nowadays?" Toby asked.

"People who don't want to get caught," Happy answered in a whisper, as the sound of another car approached.

Happy picked up the metal pipe, half the diameter of her arm, by her feet and handed it to Paige, who took it with raised brows but said nothing.

Toby had said that the most likely escape route would be back the way they'd come, a street that after two turns led right back to the highway – easier to lose – and Walter's calculations indicate that they'd stop right beside the water tank – a fair distance from the team's own van, enough distance to make them feel like they have control as to not act violently.

She nodded at Paige. With the pipe, she pushed out a dusty covered car side mirror out, out, until they had a better vantage point of the scene.

And just as Toby was complaining about burning out in the sun, a car appeared in the side mirror on the ground and Happy and Paige flattened themselves against the wall, peering out of the gap between the water tank and the wall. They dropped to a crouch behind a drum that Happy hauled from across the lot as the car came around.

The black car stopped just where Walter said it would.

Happy watched in the mirror as two, three, four pairs of feet came out of the car. Four men. They were far more than outnumbered.

And for the first time, Happy felt panic creep along her limbs. Which she's never felt before. Not even when a doomed plane was all but bound to drop from the sky.

"There's bound to be at least three more men in that van, Happy," Sly said. She didn't have to be told that. "And you've got about one point two-six minutes before they make their escape and one point four-one before backup shows up."

Paige and her shared a look that said, _If things go to plan_.

But the last time they faced off these men, they have been quick to adapt to their plan, which says a lot about not judging books by their covers. And had they not reprogrammed the machine guns, there was no doubt that things would have gone a lot worse for the team.

There was no time to waste. Happy, still in a crouch, shuffled further out, until she was one shuffle away from being in plain sight.

She waited at the edge and counted to ten, in which Walter assured her, the driver would still be checking his surroundings before he would keep an eye on the action about to unfold.

 _Nine_.

She looked back at Paige who was looking out of the gap and at the driver. Paige nodded.

 _Ten._

Faster than she's ever done, Happy dived behind the car and prayed that it didn't have a reverse camera. Then swore as she ripped the piece of black duct tape that she stuck to her leather bracelet and reached up to stick it to the offensive piece of technology.

There was no time to check if she'd been seen as she got on her back and pushed herself under the car.

A brief feeling of peace settled over her as she looked up a familiar sight before it was quickly replaced by Sly counting down her minutes in her ear.

Her only instructions were to stop the car from getting away. That left a lot of options open and her heart picked up its pace.

Normally, she would cut the ignition wire but that was in the hood. Or cut the fuel. But that was dangerous, especially if they got onto the highway. Those options weren't available to her, with men sitting in the car right above her.

Then, fragments of a conversation she shared with her father not long ago surfaced and with less than "fifty eight seconds, Happy!" she pushed herself further under the car. Since she didn't exactly have time, Happy had to pushed her pliers through a tangle of wire until she felt a thick wire that wasn't about to budge anytime soon.

She ripped off the bulldog clip from the hem of her shirt and clamped it on the fuel wire. But she knew that wouldn't be enough. Fuel would still trickle through.

"Happy!"

She bit down her lip to keep from screaming.

Fear engulfed her.

They would get away. They would get away. They would get away.

Because she couldn't stop them from leaving.

Gritting her teeth, one hand on the clip to keep it tight, she untied her shoelace and yanked as hard, once, twice, three times until it came loose. She tied it around the mouth of the clamp hoping that by now, there was only a drop of fuel but she knew that was a lie.

The least this would do is get them stranded on the highway with the police hot on their tail.

Then through the comms, "Vamos a ver el dinero en efectivo."

"Qué nos toma por tontos?"

Her ears perked at the sound of shouting, and in her ear, Cabe was trying to calm everybody, voices she didn't know were talking on top of each other, Toby trying to get a word in and Walter negotiating the payment.

The only reason Walter was negotiating was because handing over the feather light, Monopoly money-filled briefcase would reveal them. Which meant he was stalling. Which meant that back up…

"Just a couple more seconds, Walter!" Sly cried in all of their ears.

Happy scrambled to get out from under the car. If it was going to turn messy, the last place she wanted to be was defenseless under a car. Then in the mirror by her feet, she saw feet coming back towards the car. She swung her head to look at them, the boys watching her as she had no choice but to stay still, hoping they wouldn't see her feet sticking out.

She heard the door close, heard the engine crank. And crank. And crank.

And it sounded like music to her ears. There mustn't be enough fuel to get it started. Or her pliers short-circuited a live wire it might've touched. Whatever it was, she smiled as she started to come out from under the car.

A horrible ringing sound echoed through the empty lot. Gunshots.

Happy's first thought was that she'd been found. But when she turned her head, her focus zeroed in on Walter dragging a bleeding Toby away from the line of fire.

Fire. It felt like she was burning alive, not from the heat of the ground but burning alive, like her soul was crying out. Yet she remained wide-eyed, as the world stilled and sped up all at once around her.

What followed could have happened in seconds, or minutes, or hours but all Happy knew was across the lot, Toby was bleeding.

The car above her finally started. They made for their exit. Like Toby predicted. Back up finally came. She was being pulled across the ground and she couldn't close her eyes as more police cars came out of nowhere. Paige was leaning over her, her lips forming the same word over and over again.

Walter screaming through the comms broke the spell, screaming, "Cabe! The bleeding won't stop!"

It felt she'd swallowed every grain of sand in the world as Paige dragged her towards Toby, her shoe slipping off somewhere between the water tank and where Toby was on the ground, a pool of red steadily growing around him.

She reached for Toby's hand, uncurled his fingers to fit in the spaces of hers. "Toby?" she whispered, his name a question that she expected him to answer.

Paramedics were lifting Toby onto a stretcher and Happy fought against all of them as they tried to take him away, stubbornly holding tighter, tighter onto his hand.

Several times, she stumbled, eyes brimming with tears, stones digging into the sole of her feet. She rode beside Toby in the ambulance, knowing everyone else would follow.

Throughout the ride that seemed to last a lifetime, Happy couldn't help but remember how Toby had been acting strangely ever since they left the garage. Pulling her so close to him in the van that she was practically on his lap and whispering a quick but sincere _I love you_ with a kiss to her temple before they had split up.

He had probably been thinking back to what happened in Mexico, but she couldn't help but feel like somehow, unexplainable by all the science she knew but _somehow_ , he had known.

She brought his hand to her cheek, pressing a kiss to his palm as the tears finally fell, minutes before they rolled him into the emergency OR.

She had never got to say _I love you_ back.

* * *

 _Whew here starts the angst! Hope you guys are liking this so far, and keep tuned in for updates soon!_

 _Reviews really make our day, if you can spare it (:_


	3. 3: Hospital

_Here's where the ride gets really wild, so hold on!_

* * *

Cabe and Cooper were taking too damn long inside the doctor's office, all hushed tones and phone calls. Happy knew that if Toby was out here he'd have gotten all the information a long time ago, charming the nurses and mentioning his Harvard degrees a few too many times than necessary.

But Toby wasn't out here, he was _in there_ \- in the operating theatre from which the surgeons (no doubt with degrees and skills far inferior to the man they were operating on) were coming out periodically with far too much blood splattered across their scrubs; in that almost black hole of a room where the doors never opened enough to let them see inside and where the security cameras were on an air gap system that even Sly, Walter and Ralph combined couldn't hack into.

In there where Happy had no idea whether the man she loved more than life itself was alive or dead.

 _Schrodinger's Toby_ , he would have joked. He was obsessed with the hypothetical cat, as with most of the other psychological theories he would babble on about for hours. More than once he had mentioned how he sometimes hoped Ferret Bueller had been a cat, just so he could call it Schrodinger. Happy had rolled her eyes back then and slapped his arm lightly, but now she knew she would give anything, anything at all that the universe wanted from her, just to hear him go off on one of his little tangents again.

And suddenly she understood why Paige had slapped Walter after he disengaged the rail cars months back, because _oh God_ , Toby had promised to never let her get hurt, but he had never promised the same about himself.

Happy watched the chief surgeon enter his office that had turned into an impromptu meeting room, and she had spent enough time around Toby to spot and recognize the surgeon's lips slightly upturned into a small smile and the glint of relief in his eyes. She allowed herself to relax the smallest fraction, because unless she was much worse at reading body language than she gave herself credit for, or the doctor was some sadistic psychopath, it had to mean that Toby was going to be okay, right?

It was also why, when the trio stepped out of the office 6.34 minutes later, the doctor's face drastically sullen and sympathetic, that she didn't register the words that he said the first time around.

"I'm sorry."

It seemed nobody fully took the words in the first time around though, the other three geniuses were still engaged in their futile attempt to hack an air gap system, and Paige was watching them carefully whilst trying to keep her own emotions in line for the sake of the son.

"Kids." Cabe's voice rang out and that finally brought everyone back into the real world. He had never called them kids before. The occasional individual 'kid' or 'son' yes, but never as a collective. "Kids, I…"

"I'm sorry," the doctor repeated, filling in where Cabe's emotions failed him. "We tried everything we could."

Happy shook her head, the world becoming one blurry mess. Her hands balled into fists hung by her sides because those _this couldn't be happening, god, please, don't let this be happening_.

For a second Happy felt her heart break for whoever it was that let out the gut-wrenching, guttural scream that echoed around the waiting room, before she realised it came from her.

She vaguely registered Walter, Sly and Cabe as they approached her and held her back as she went off on the doctor. "You're wrong!"

The doctor just stayed silent.

"Stop lying!" Happy cried. "Stop lying to me!"

Cabe was trying to calm her down.

She pointed a threatening finger at the doctor and what he was trying to tell her. "You have no idea what you're doing, you aren't even a _fraction_ of the doctor Toby is. No one is! Toby would have been able to do it. Toby…"

The fight left her as soon as it had come, and she broke down in the boys' arms. "Toby wouldn't have let himself die."

"We did the best we could. The bullet wound caused excess blood loss and there was little we could have done to prevent the brain damage that it caused."

Happy fought against the arms that held with renewed anger. " _Could_ have? But did you? Did you even _try_!"

Cabe whispered her name, Paige trying to look Happy in the eye and Sly and Walter, for the life of them, struggled to keep a hold of the wriggling mechanic who was half their size but whose coursing adrenaline made her ten times as strong as the two of them combined.

"I will ruin you!" Happy shouted, no longer registering what she was saying.

Cabe turned to the doctor. "She won't."

"I will!" Happy cried, her words like sandpaper on the walls of her throat. "I _will_ do it!"

Happy had very little say in the matter of walking away as three pairs of arms lifted her feet off of the ground. She narrowed her eyes at the doctor, a title that she fully respected only when it was used in reference to Toby, until Paige stepped in her line of vision.

"Happy… You know Toby wouldn't have wanted you to-"

"Shut up!" She yelled at the other woman, for once not bothering to watch her language around Ralph. "You have no idea what he would want, none of us will. Because he's _dead_. Toby's fucking dead and it's all that _idiot's_ fault!"

"Aunt Happy?" said youngest genius walked up to her, worry and loss evident in his eyes, but she couldn't look at him, so young, so full of life, wondering why someone as strong as Happy was suddenly crumbling.

She hadn't meant to be so rude to Ralph. But between the Christmases, the card tricks and, heaven bless, that Valentine's Day last year, she could hardly remember a moment spent with him without Toby by her side.

"If you don't mind," the doctor's cautious voice broke the sudden silence that had befallen the team. "You can be taken to see the body, but please refrain from touching it. It's…" he glanced at Cooper but nobody else registered the silent contact. "It's hospital policy and I'm so sorry, yet again."

 _Body_. The word resonated around Happy's mind, bringing what was usually working on overdrive into a grinding halt. It was all that was left of Toby now - no more snarky comebacks or stolen kisses the garage ( _we're_ literally _under Walter's nose Hap, how sneaky is this?_ ) or warm cuddles lulling her to sleep.

Just a cold, dead body under a bleached white flat sheet.

Staring at the unremarkable form under the sheet, Happy couldn't believe how different it looked from the warm lump curled up under her blankets that she had clambered over to get out of bed just that morning. There was no other word to describe it, just… _dead_.

Happy knew that this was it. Nothing else in life mattered anymore. She was drowning in emptiness. The submarine, the dam, none of that could compare to now, and she knew why - her anchor, her rock was gone and there was nothing to save her, not anymore.

The rest of the cyclone could offer little comfort, mourning their second loss in six months. Walter, Paige and Sylvester had lost their brother just as they were getting over their sister and wife. Cabe had lost his third child. Ralph had lost his fun uncle.

And Happy had lost the love of her life.

Toby had such amazing dreams, whispered to Happy in the dead of night as they snuggled together under the covers.

 _I need to get Walt and Paige together. For their own good of course, but mostly to be able to tell Walt 'I told you so.'_

 _Maybe I should convince Cabe to get Sly into boxing too. Sparring in the garage would be so fun, don't you think?_

 _Ralph has to go to Harvard. Like_ has _to. Caltech is good for now when he's still young, but his degrees will be from Harvard or so help me._

They hadn't talked much about their own future plans though, no doubt Toby hadn't wanted to say too much and potentially scare her off.

 _Not that it matters now_ , a harsh voice cut through Happy's grief-stricken thoughts and she knew it was right.

She knew she didn't have much of a future anymore, not when the one constant she had imagined by her side for the the next fifty years and beyond was laying on a cold stainless steel table in front of her.

 _Dead_.

* * *

And yet despite everything Happy thought she knew, there were some very, very important things that she didn't.

She didn't know that if only Paige had blinked away the tears blurring her vision and the loss hazing her mind, she might have - _just might have_ \- caught the subtle, ever so slightly nervous glance shared between the doctor, Cabe and Cooper.

She didn't know that if she had just consolidated what little strength left in her to fight against the doctor's requests and let her hand rest on the right shoulder of the body under the sheet, she might have felt it feel notably different from the one she rested her head against almost every night.

She didn't know that if any of the geniuses had been functioning at even a fifth of their normal capacity, they might have realised that the figure was 0.58 inches shorter and 1.24 inches wider than their resident shrink.

* * *

Outside, a lone media van from the Channel 8 news somewhat suspiciously circled the back entrance of the hospital. The reporter had gotten a call to her personal line that, ( _and remember Ms Grover this story is for you and you alone or you'll face federal charges)_ , a Homeland agent that had gotten fatally shot by an infamous Mexican drug cartel.

* * *

Thirteen hours later and just over a thousand miles away in a rural farming town north of Laramie, WY, a newcomer walked into a small, dusty bar, where its stereo is picking up an obscure country station, the old fluorescents blinking. _This could almost be a setting for one of her bad mathlitist jokes,_ he couldn't help smiling to himself.

In a pair of old jeans, boots, a denim jacket and a slightly worn black hat, the man didn't physically stand out much compared to the other patrons, but it was a small town and the owner prided himself on knowing all of his regulars. And this was certainly not one of his regulars.

"Name's Pete. Y' not from here, are ya?" He leaned over the counter, eager to know more about this new arrival, but the stranger just shook his head, a polite but to the point sign that he wasn't too interested in talking.

"A'ight, what can I getcha?"

"Just a Bud." The newcomer finally looked up, and Pete had to physically take a step back as a pair of sharp hazel eyes seemed to bore right into the center of his soul. "Oh, and if you don't mind, could you switch one of the TVs to the Channel 8 news?"

* * *

 _Here starts the angst! Hope you guys are still enjoying this, can't wait to hear what you have to say! And thanks so much for all the support so far! (:_


	4. 4: Planning

_The one where they know they have to start fighting back._

* * *

"We need to get them." Happy barged in the garage, door slamming against the wall. "We need to get them and I swear to every God above I'll make them regret ever being born."

She paused as she took in the four pairs of eyes blinking at her. " _What?_ "

"Nothing." Paige was quick to try and calm her. "It's just I… we… you had been uncontactable the two weeks, we didn't expect to see you, and so…"

Even the well-spoken liaison had no words to describe how Happy looked. It was almost as if she was a mere skeleton of the Happy they had last seen, her jacket seemed two sizes too big for her frame and her usually skin-tight jeans essentially baggy.

"I was busy." She pushed past Paige and toward the boys who were gathered around the main computer terminal. "So what do we have on those bastards?"

Sylvester looked over nervously at the rest. "Should we really let her work this case?" He whispered, only intending to let Walter and Cabe hear.

"What was that?" Happy bit, and the younger genius winced.

"I… I didn't mean any offense," Sylvester backed away slightly. "It's just that you might a bit too emotionally attached to this. We all are, but-"

" _But_ the only person qualified enough and allowed to talk about my emotions is… isn't here anymore," her voice faltered toward the end as she glanced over to Toby's empty desk, but she quickly plastered her mask back on. "So if I say I'm ready to work, I'm ready to work. And that's all anyone gets to say on this matter."

"Okay." Walter understood best where Happy was coming from, and knew that there was no point arguing and taking time away from the case. "The La Plaga fled back to Mexico the day of the… um…"

"The day they killed Toby." Happy stated, frighteningly lacking emotion. "Just spit it out and carry on, O'Brien."

Even Walter looked scared of her now. "Uh yes. It took us a while to track them down again-"

"We were grieving too, Happy." Paige reasoned, but shut up at Happy's glare.

"We eventually did manage to find them, and have set up another meeting for next week. Elia promised to give us the actual money this time so that there wouldn't be a repeat of the last-"

"So that _another_ one of us wouldn't have to die? How nice of of the man whose stupid ideas have already killed Toby. _Twice_."

"We will have the actual money on hand," Walter continued, remembering how he had acted after Megan's passing and forgiving Happy's outbursts. "But the plan is to get to them the day before the drop. A week is plenty of time to ensure we execute this mission perfectly, and since you're here we might as well go through the final plan."

"I managed to hack into their emails, they're staying at the Oceanside Motel. This is the floorplan of the building," Sylvester pulled it up on the screen. "Taking into account vantage points and easy escape routes…" he trailed off. The following silence was heavy and awkward and seemed to suffocate the usually airy garage, and everyone knew why.

This is the point Toby steps up and contributes his insights and psychological analysis.

Cabe cleared his throat, picking up from where Sylvester had stopped. "I've already cleared it with Homeland, LAPD, the FBI and SWAT. We can't evacuate the motel until the moment we go in or they'll realise it's a trap, but we've staked out sufficient emergency holding areas to lead the other guests out to."

"And since we're just there to evacuate the residents," Sly said, before looking to Paige for assistance.

Paige cleared her throat. "Happy, we think it's best that you just stay in the van with Sylvester. There's really not much to be done inside the building."

"Okay."

Happy's quick reply of consent had everyone looking at each other. _That_ they didn't see coming, but they thought it was wiser to not question it.

Maybe they should have had.

* * *

The next few days were a blur of coordination and planning and re-rechecking equipment and modifying whatever could post the slightest snafu.

Everyone was working hard, harder than they should be, harder than was healthy, but also hard enough that even the geniuses' hyperactive minds were too occupied to think about anything else. Or any _one_ else.

Happy remained unnaturally stoic through it all and the team didn't need Paige, or Toby, to tell them that this wasn't right.

As much as everyone tried to get through to Happy, it was Walter who got the closest to a breakthrough. He had been on the flip side- down the rabbit hole, not just when Megan died but with Collins as well- and he knew that the best way to reach out to her was to let her be, only pulling her out when she was going to extremes that could harm her.

The team all grieved, individually but also silently together. It was the smallest things that hurt the most- when Ralph came back from school on Wednesday, smiling for the first time weeks after winning a pack of cards from a lucky draw in school, only to realize there was nobody to teach him to play. When Paige, trying to cook dinner through her tears accidentally burned herself, only there was no one to recite half the medical school syllabus and boast about Harvard while tending to her. When Cabe, Walter and Sylvester habitually packed up early on Thursday for their weekly boys' night, only to realize they were missing their most fun member.

Or when Happy, eyes tired from hours spent working on minute circuitry and days spent crying her soul out, looked up and smiled across the garage, only to be met with an empty chair.

* * *

Cooper would come in as often as she could, feeling terrible for what had happened and wanting to help the team as best she could despite how little she knew about the geniuses and their emotions. This time however, she came with someone unfamiliar to the team.

"Hello?" It almost came as a question as only Paige and Cabe looked up briefly in acknowledgement. Used to it by now, she cleared her throat and continued, "I know none of you would come into the Homeland for this so Dr. Jacobs offered to come down here instead, if any of you want to talk or-" she stopped talking abruptly, shocked by how fast the team whipped around to stare at her, mouths dropped open in surprise.

Happy recovered first, sneering at the two newcomers. "What is he, some kind of wannabe shrink?"

Cooper nodded slowly, opening her mouth to explain but Happy had all the answer she needed.

"Is this some kind of _joke_? Are you _sick_?" the mechanic exploded, taking out all her long-suppressed emotions on the deputy director. "Do you have _any_ idea who just died? Toby. _Toby_. He was the best in his field, in the _world_ , and now you want us to talk to your crappy normal _idiot_?"

"Happy…" Paige tried to warn her, to get her to stop before she said or did anything she would regret, but that only served to fuel her further.

She slammed down the screwdriver she had been holding and jumped over her workbench, fully intending to pummel Cooper, or the pathetic excuse for a psychologist beside her. Or both.

Sylvester caught her just in time, and she had lost so much weight that holding her off the ground felt like almost nothing. "Happy, stop. She just wants to help, we all do. Talking helped me after Megan, maybe it might be a good-"

"You as well?" She turned around to snap at him and he dropped her in shock but managed to keep a strong enough grip on her arm that she couldn't run off. "Talking about Megan helped because you talked to _Toby_. Not some stupid son of a-"

Paige and Walter reached the two of them, helping Sylvester keep a grip on Happy and trying to calm her down as she did her damndest to fight them all off.

Jacobs, genuinely innocent in all of this, apologised as profusely as he could and tried to back out slowly but Cooper stopped him, whispering harshly that she needed to get what she came here for, that she still needed her distraction to work.

For, unbeknownst to the four struggling in the middle of the garage, Cabe had slipped around back during the commotion and made his way to Toby's desk. Quietly taking out the Doc's laptop from the drawer, he secured it into a cardboard box, then slipped it off to Cooper as she finally left the scene.

* * *

Two days later, 1052 miles away on the outskirts of Laramie, a package was dropped off at the inn the newcomer was staying at. As if he himself and the black, unregistered delivery van didn't raise enough suspicion, the note on the package did.

 _15/02/2016_

 _Only open on day of use._

* * *

 _Thank you all so much for all the amazing reviews and favourites and follows, it really makes out day and keeps us eager to update as much as we can! The rest of the chapters only get angstier so stay tuned! Love all of you (:_


	5. 5: Apartment

_**A little break from the action, where Happy has to do the one thing she had never thought she'd need to do.**_

 _ **A/N: We wrote this last week, before 2.14 aired, so we were working under the assumption that they started dating after White Out (there's a scene later about when they got together; so I guess it deviates from the canon timeline from then on)**_

* * *

" _It's been three weeks Happy, we need to clean out his place. Maybe it'll be nice you know, you can keep as many memorabilias of him as you want. Walter said whatever you can't keep in your place can be kept in the garage."_

" _We've already planned out the mission to a T, take some time off and go. Besides, we might find some things he has been working on and we could try to finish them. Who knows, maybe he had some ideas to make the team more efficient and- ow! What, Paige?"_

" _I took everything I could from Megan's room. It does help to have constant reminders of the good times, Happy."_

" _C'mon kid, you need to get closure."_

The team's voices kept pounding in her head every waking minute (for every sleeping moment was filled with memories of Toby's arms around her, the irrevocable love she had taken too long to accept that was taken away too soon).

The team had enlisted her father to talk to her, to try and get to where none of them could, but every second spent with him was a second remembering how they had only reconnected because of Toby, and that plan fell apart almost as soon as it started.

Logically, she knew all of them were right. She had to come to terms with it eventually, and the sooner it was the better. The only problem was, she didn't quite know how.

Months ago, crouched in the desert outside Area 51 with Toby safely in sight just a few feet ahead, she had told Paige that death had always been a part of her life, that it really wasn't a big deal. If only she had known how wrong she was. Sure, she had lost her mother on the day she was born, but that alone made the statement more fact than sentiment- sure, it was her mother that had died, but even with her eidetic memory Happy couldn't remember the mere minutes that she had seen her alive- she remembered so little that emotionally she had lost so little.

Megan too. She did like Walter's sister, Sylvester's wife, but Megan had been introduced to the team so late, and even then between hospitalisations and therapy they had seen little of each other. She had grieved Megan, of course, but if she was going to be cruelly blunt about it, half of it had been second hand grieving for Walter and Sly. All those last few weeks when Megan was deteriorating, she hadn't been able to help but feel that she and Toby were the only ones blissfully saved from being directly involved with Megan- Walter and Sly were obvious, but this was also the second daughter than Cabe was going to lose, and Paige was practically Megan's sister-in-law.

This time around she couldn't help but feel that the roles had been reversed, that she was the one feeling the full brunt of direct pain while the rest had somewhat of a blessed distance. No doubt they all loved Toby- he was their brother, their son- but to her he was her best friend, the one person she loved over anyone and anything else.

And now he was gone and she needed to clean out his apartment.

She had texted Walter that she was going to take the day off to go to his place, something even Mr No-EQ didn't fight for once, then shut off her phone because the last thing she needed was Paige's pity and Cabe and Sly's sharing of sob stories.

Opening the door with the key Toby had given her ( _"I know you can pick my lock in seconds sweetheart, but you've already given old Mrs Mitchell next door two almost-heart attacks by breaking in so late, and I'd rather our date nights not be interrupted by a dying neighbour.")_ Happy was almost physically knocked back by the familiar smell of coffee and old cologne, of Toby, of _home_. It took all of her willpower not to break down right there in his doorway, but she took a deep breath and walked in, locking the door behind her.

Once inside, she somehow managed to put her mask of indifference back on, to build up her walls again, and began almost mechanically cleaning out the obvious things, starting with the old food in the kitchen. The living room was easy enough too- she just had to unplug all of his electronics and bring them back to the garage; she could set up a dedicated gaming room upstairs for Ralph, surely Walter wouldn't mind.

It was the bedrooms that tested all her resolve. Toby had turned the spare into a mini library of sorts, his books, journals and notes scattered across every available surface, covered in highlights and the messy scribble he produced when something more important than penmanship was occupying his mind. There was also a growing pile of circuitry at the far corner near a bean bag, where they had spent a fair part of most weekends silently working side by side (she tried not to think about the inverse scene in her apartment, where his papers were gradually taking over her work bench). Happy packed everything up as best she could, knowing she'd eventually have to call in the rest of the team to help her move everything out.

It was the master bedroom that broke her.

She was still somewhat treading water at first, managing to box in all her memories as she picked up the clothes- a mess of his and hers- discarded around the room. For once she was so glad that he was sloppy at best with his laundry schedule, most of his clothes still smelled so much like him that if she hugged enough of them to her and closed her eyes, it was almost as if he was still here, holding her in his arms.

His bedside table proudly boasted a framed picture of them that Paige had secretly taken when they thought they were alone in the garage, him on the couch with her sideways on his lap, looking at each other and laughing at some long forgotten joke. Laughing seemed so foreign to her now, her own namesake an emotion that did nothing but taunt her memories of how blissful the past four months had been. She cradled the picture frame more gently than she had ever held anything in her life, as if the slightest force would shatter it to pieces and she would lose even more of him, of them, than she already had.

It was only then that she realised she had never seen him open the bottom drawer of his bedside table. It almost felt wrong going through something she hadn't while he was still around, but she couldn't help going through the stack of notebooks she found. Only two lines in, she realised they weren't just notebooks, but journals.

 _So today was interesting. Gallo, the old geezer who arrested Walt for his NASA hack, barged in, needing our help to save LAX. It was welcoming in a way, the first job in a long time that actually gave credit to our skills. Well Walt, Sly and Happy's skills honestly, I just screwed up. Again._

 _Gallo said he might think about making us permanent consultants for Homeland. I know Walt doesn't trust that guy too much, but I can't help getting honesty markers from him, maybe he has changed? Need to study him a bit more. And then there's that waitress, Paige, and her genius kid Ralph. Walt seems to be taking sweet to her, maybe he'll let her stick around, it'll be good for the boy as well, hopefully he won't turn out too much of a freak like us._

 _Also if this thing works out, then Happy will stay. She's been talking too much about moving to Phoenix, and I don't know how I'll deal with it if she leaves. She's the best friend I've ever had, and I think I'm starting to like-_

Happy slammed the book close, unable to read on. Forcing her breathing back to normal, she picked up the next book against her better judgement.

 _Our first overseas trip today, and it was crazy. Like nuttier than anything I ever saw in Bellevue crazy. Well first we finally got to meet Megan, she's super sweet and I'm pretty sure Sly really thinks so too… hehehe gotta bug him on that. Unless Walt overhears then we're both dead._

 _Then just 8 hours later we were in the middle of who-knows-where in Bosnia. Lost. Without any of our supplies, or my hat. I can't believe I freaking_ lost my hat _rolling down a stupid hill in stupid Bosnia._

 _And Happy got hurt and she was obviously in pain but there was so little I could do without even so much a bandage. It's killing me that I couldn't help her, I hope she knows I'd do anything for her-_

* * *

 _What the hell is wrong with me, why can't I hold on to anything good in my life, why must I screw up EVERYTHING? I promised her, swore on my life, that I would never hurt her, that her faith in me would be justified. But no. What the fuck is the point of going to Harvard if I overdose on fucking Alprazolam_ _on the most important night-_

* * *

 _I don't know what I did wrong._

 _The first case after Walt came back seemed to go pretty good, and things looked like they were going back to normal but she just cut me off today and I don't know why. I respect her decision, and I know I need to let her go but how am I just supposed to pretend like I don't love-_

* * *

 _Last night was the best night of my life! I can't believe I was such a Grinch before, Christmas miracles are totally real. Well technically it's January 4_ _th_ _and we both almost died in Antarctica two days ago… I'll get to the case later but right now, she's sleeping beside me while I'm writing this-_ we are finally together and Happy's actually staying over _. God, she's so amazing and beautiful and I still can't believe she chose me and she's_ here. _I don't think I will ever get over this._

 _I love her. I love her so much more that I ever thought a human was capable of loving and I swear to God I'm going to do everything I can to make this work, I'll never hurt her-_

Happy could barely get past the first page of each journal, it was almost as if Toby was right there beside her, she could practically hear his voice reading them aloud to her. She had always known that he loved her, but it was only when reading his words that she realised just how impactful a role in his life she played. She couldn't help but curse herself for all the hurt she had caused him, for not letting him in sooner, for not giving them at least a few more months together before he was ripped away from her, from them.

Frustrated- more at herself than anything- and vision blurring with tears that Toby would have long since wiped away if he were here, she kicked the drawer closed, only to hear a slight jostling sound. She opened it again, slowly, and noticed a small box tucked in the far corner. Opening it carefully, Happy audibly gasped at the white gold band staring back at her, the metal and inset diamond glinting in the little light Toby's curtains let in. For a split second she was flooded with jealousy, disgust, anger- _after everything, and he still kept her_ _ring?_ She plucked it out of the velvet padding with far more force than necessary, ready to throw it across the room in rage, when her sharp eyes picked up on the engraving on the inside of the band.

The smallest, most delicate scorpion she had ever seen, and the words _My Christmas miracle._

It took Happy's hazed mind a moment longer than she should have to realise that it wasn't Amy's ring.

It was _hers_.

* * *

 _ **Whooo that was fun... right? The next chapter is going to be crazy action packed so stay tuned!**_

 _ **Also thank you all so much for all the amazing reviews, it's really so exciting to see you guys liking this little plotbunny of ours, hope you guys like this, and the future chapters too! (:**_


	6. 6: Revenge

_This is our longest and most action-packed chapter! All the planning comes to a head and the team finally get what they've needed._

* * *

He opened the encrypted laptop, typed in the given IP address and waited impatiently for the connection to be made a computer located 1,052 miles away. When he heard the ding, he worked on splitting the signal of their comms, although how he was supposed to hear their conversation three states away was beyond him.

But sure enough, their voices came through, and hacking the security cameras in the buildings in front and adjacent wasn't easy, but it certainly wasn't impossible.

He watched Sly through the open van door, and by the speed his fingers were flying across the keyboard, figured that he was hacking into a system somewhere in the building.

"Sly," Walter's voice filtered through the comms although there wasn't a visual on him, or the rest of the team. "Lock the doors as soon as the last person's out, clear?"

"Crystal," the younger genius replied, eyes fixed on the computer on his lap.

Walter, Paige and Cabe exited the van and disappeared into the building, as the second set of security cameras showed. They were one member short.

Were it not for the feedback coming in through their comms, one would have thought that there was no progress.

"I've got first." Paige.

"Second." Walter.

"And third. Copy." Cabe.

Minutes ticked by and he watched as slowly, residents – old and young, women, men, children, infants being carried – came out of the building and scattered in different directions, awaiting instructions from the emergency evacuation team waiting nearby.

"Head out," He heard Cabe order. "Wait for further instructions."

Had his attention been anywhere but the screen, had he blinked in that split second, he would've missed the small body of a woman that scurried out of the van. She knocked into Sylvester's legs, his laptop clattering to the ground as he exclaimed, "Happy!"

1,052 miles away, a chair crashed to the ground.

In the view of the cameras from the adjacent building, he watched her slip through the front doors as they were closing - _for all he had joked, there was no way she had been that small the last time he saw her. Had she really lost that much weight?_ \- just as Walter, Paige, and Cabe came out of the two side exits.

Paige was running towards Sylvester, worry written on her face, before the words registered, "Happy's in the building!"

The sirens of the police cut through the silence of the looks the team shared.

"I knew she accepted to stay in the van too easily." Sylvester cried, frantically. "If I overwrite the code to let us go back in and get her, they could escape out of any of the six exit doors, or the automatic kitchen door to the two unguarded garbage chutes."

"Walter," he said, a fraction calmer. "She's outnumbered in there of one to god, knows how many. I don't think you need my numbers to know how badly the odds are against her."

Walter stared up at the building as he told Sly to get the security cameras up.

Paige spoke up as Cabe radioed the LAPD, requiring others to effectively secure any street escape routes and highway entrances and to _hurry the hell up_. "She's acting purely on emotion. She's unpredictable and we don't know her goal."

"Where is she?" Walter demanded from Sylvester before turning back to Paige. "And no. She might be acting on emotion, but I know what she's after. The man who shot Toby is in there and this might be her only chance before he's locked up for good."

1,052 miles away, the realization stabbed the team's remote observer in the heart, a million times more painful than any bullet. He didn't even need his fancy training to know what was driving her. The all-encompassing blind rage and desperation and nothing to lose feeling of-

"Revenge," Paige whispered. "Which is the worst kind of emotion to be acting on. She's in there willing to risk everything. And anything."

"I've locked down the lifts so she's taking the stairs. She's just reached the second floor landing."

"Keep eyes on her," Walter ordered as Sly set up the laptop so everybody else could see.

"She's not on a comm," Paige said, wiping her palms down on her blouse. "We can't get to her."

Walter groaned in frustration as they watched Happy pass the third floor and reached the fourth, going through each room, coming back out of each one looking more determined than when she went in. "What room are they in?"

"4M, two rooms from the fire escape."

Walter waved his hand, thoughts running too fast for anyone to catch up. "Beat her there. Hack something that has a microphone. Something with Bluetooth or Wi-Fi. Something connected to an open network."

Happy was at 4F, barging out with hands clenched in a fist, nose scrunched in unbridled fury.

"She knows," Paige said. "She knows they won't be in those first few rooms, so far away from any possible quick exit routes."

Happy kicked open the door to 4J. Then moved on to 4K when no big bad wolf came to greet her.

"Keep her out," Cabe shouted. "Back up's a block away."

He'd never seen Sly's fingers dance over the keyboard so fast. "Door's locked. And here," he said, turning up the volume of the computer.

Faint sounds filtered through to the laptop until they grew clearer and finally distinguished words could be heard.

They watched Happy stop outside 4M. Her chest was heaving, whether from the exhaustion of going through all those rooms or from anger, nobody knew. Perhaps both.

She placed her hand on the door handle with a calm that rocked terror through their spines. It was the calm before the storm; it promised destruction. She had nothing to lose.

However, when she pulled down and the door didn't give, Happy became someone none of them recognized. It was heartbreaking.

"Hold down the fort," Cabe repeated sternly as they saw the men go up to the door, trying to do the same as Happy. "They'll know they're trapped."

A chorus of "What the hell?", "The door isn't budging.", "Prepare to head out!" echoed through the speakers and the men burst to life inside the room, like pepper and detergent in water.

Happy, still pulling and pushing on the door, was searching for a security camera and found it nestled in a corner to her left.

She turned to face the camera directly and despite the poor quality of the feed, he felt his heart catch in this throat. Her lips were so pale they almost blended in with her skin and there were shadows, as dark as night, under her eyes. _How long had it been since she last slept?_

"Walter! Sylvester! Let me in!" she screamed, though her voice was barely picked up by the microphones of the devices in the room. She became more insistent, as though if she pulled hard enough, the door would come off of its hinges. Which could be utterly possible with this Happy they were witnessing.

Without a comm, Happy heard nothing but silence, and all the silence did was fuel her some more. And she turned to Paige for help. "Dineen! He's in there, Paige," Happy cried, stomping her foot down like a toddler throwing a tantrum. "Toby's murderer is in there! I know you can hear me!"

How it must feel to truly lose the person you love? Not lost through a break up, or moving away, or an argument, but to truly lose them to something greater than this mortal world. And to lose them so suddenly, for them to be ripped away from you.

At least Sylvester had time to come to terms with Megan, to do all he had wanted to do, to leave no regrets. Happy never had that luxury.

She screamed – in frustration, for someone to come help her, and in the hope that if she screamed loud enough, hard enough to release her soul, then maybe Toby would come back. She would pay that price: her soul in exchange for his life. She would pay anything.

She had lost track of how long had she been banging on that door because the next thing she heard were sirens and the door clicked open under her hand and footsteps came thundering up the stairs – the sound only possible when made in the tens, maybe hundreds. But all Happy could focus on was the door swinging open to an empty living room.

"Where are you, you bastard!" Happy shouted into the empty room. She flung open dressers, tossed on the bed every briefcase she could find in her search – for a weapon, maybe. The same kind he had shot Toby with. And if that wasn't handy, she'd gladly do it with her bare hands.

She fought against the person on the other side of the bedroom door in a fight to open it. "Cowards!" she called to them, sweat trickling down her neck, down her spine. "Come out and fight me!"

All of a sudden hands were pulling her away from the door, revenge slipping from her fingers. Frantically, a woman gone wild, she struggled against the people holding her, arms swinging blindly, legs kicking back, sometimes hitting flesh, sometimes not.

"Let me go!" Happy cried. "I said, put me down! Do you not speak English!"

Several of the police smashed the door handle to the bedroom and several minutes later, the bloody bastards came out, handcuffed and stripped of their weapons. They all looked the same to Happy; they all killed Toby.

As the first one came near, Happy lunged for him, barely kept back. "Let me have a go at him!" She twisted and watched the man be lead out of the door.

Each man that came out of the bedroom, Happy tried to get her hands around their throat, screaming anything and nothing at all.

"I'm going to send you to hell myself! You think I'm scared?"

"If you even look at me – you wanna try me! I'll make Guantanamo look like the Ritz!"

"Cash means nothing in jail! _You're_ nothing in jail! You're nothing _anywhere_!

"You little pile of – FIGHT ME!"

When she wasn't screaming her throat raw, she was trying to land a kick or a punch or a finger in the eye.

And when the last man was out of the front door and the room was declared out of bounds for evidence, Happy deflated in the policemen's arms, all the fight evaporating out of her as she was limply carried back down the stairs.

Waiting until they were down to the first floor landing, before Walter and Cabe met Happy at the front door where she was placed safely in Cabe's arms, who swayed her as she wished for everything to end.

* * *

Back in the garage, right after Cabe wrapped Happy in a tight hug and headed off to take care of the report, Walter, Sylvester and Paige, with Happy nestled securely between the latter two, sat in a circle by Toby's desk.

"I was so close," Happy whispered, staring at Toby's go-bag sitting innocently on the floor, that had recently come to be used more after impromptu nights over at her place than on actual cases.

Toby's face as he was rolled into the operating theatre flashed in her mind. She pressed a hand to her chest where the now all too familiar ache resided, fingers curling over the neckline of her tank top and around the ring, strung through an old necklace, that only she knew was there "I could've made sure he never took another breath again."

Sly put his arm on her shoulders, and she had become so thin that it wrapped all the way around her. "And the thought of losing you as well, it isn't a thought that's allowed."

Walter looked like he might cry too.

Paige spoke up. "Maybe it hurts because we have so many things we had yet to tell Toby. I think those things are crushing us from inside out."

Everyone knew what Paige was saying but nobody knew how to do it. So Paige started.

"When I first met you guys, all I could hear from Toby's mouth was how great he was," she laughed, chin tilted to the ceiling, tears running down the side of her cheeks. "We couldn't go one conversation without him bragging about Harvard, remember?"

Paige chuckled but her voice had become strained, "God, and his obsession with his hat!"

Sly smiled and squeezed Happy's hand. "I don't – I don't have a story but if Megan's death taught me anything and if she wanted her last words to have any impact, it was that we shouldn't be afraid to feel these things. We have to let it teach us to grow." Everyone turned to Sly who was looking at Happy. "Don't be afraid of how much it hurts, Happy."

"I love him," she whispered, voice hoarse from the weeks of crying and screaming into her pillows. "God, I love him so much and I was too stuck up to tell him and now he'll never… he'll never know just how much I-"

She cut off, and Happy let herself feel how painful it really was to lose Toby, someone who had wriggled his way into her then-stone cold heart and set up a permanent base there when she hadn't been looking. She let the pain swim in her veins until the sting in the back of her eyes turned into a river of tears down her cheeks.

And finally, she let it all out, bawling into Sylvester's chest, soaking his sweater vest, and all through the night, the four of them held each other up and together until the sun danced on the four of them sleeping on the floor. In the middle of it all, Happy was fast asleep, for once starting to look again like the Happy that they all knew, getting her first full night's sleep although her mind was flooded with had-beens and could-have-beens with Toby.

* * *

Two weeks later, they were jostled from their individual tasks by the slamming of the door against the wall.

"Listen up," Cabe called out, walking in purposefully. Scorpion, scattered around the place, turned their heads.

Sylvester met Cabe halfway as Paige emerged from the kitchen and Walter came down the stairs carrying Ferret Bueller. "New case?"

"No." In the silent garage, his voice echoed off the walls –the only sound heard over Happy welding, hammering, throwing of metal. "I come bearing news."

Happy appeared by Walter's side, pulling off her welder's gloves. "What kind?"

Cabe lips turned up in a hint of a smile. "The good kind. Deputy director's just informed me that La Plaga's hearing in court is today. And with the evidence we have against them, it's inevitable they're heading to jail."

Happy walked back to her workbench, coming back just seconds later – hair up, jacket donned on – ready to face the world. "I want to be there."

There wasn't much behind her voice, flat, almost bored. Had it not been for the way her nose flared when she inhaled or the quiver in her chin, a passerby would have thought she was asking someone to buy milk from the grocer.

Over Happy's shoulder, Paige shook her head slightly at Cabe. It's been the most normal week they've had since, since Toby passed. Happy still wasn't eating but at least Walter could count the number of times, he'd found Happy passed out on the couch on just two hands. She hadn't really been snippy but that might have been because the others were smart enough to stay out of her way. She had stopped by Ferret Bueller's cage once to pet him, and he's still alive (granted, Paige didn't know what Toby's initial reaction around the ferret had meant to him and Happy but still).

Paige was desperate to keep that, keep this version of Happy.

But Cabe…Cabe understood what it was like to need justice be served. In all his years, he knew that one of the things that could help, even if only a little, just a sliver, with what Happy was going through, was to see the cartel be put away for good.

So he nodded and she went out to his car, as Cabe said over his shoulder to the others, "She needs it to douse a little bit of the fire. Let her have this."

"Come on, Cabe," Happy called out, sticking her head back in the garage and it sounded so much like the Happy they knew, so much like she was ready to burst into a smile, that for a second, Walter, Sylvester and Paige wondered whether the skies would open to end the drought.

The drive to the court had been mostly silent, save for Happy tapping her feet on the floorboard of the SUV. Inside the courtroom, Cabe sat in the aisle with Happy beside him, awaiting the cartel and for Cooper to set out the evidence.

"How come they're doing the hearing so early?" Happy whispered as the judge sat down.

Cabe fixed his tie. "I had Cooper pull some strings. You need this, kid. And I need to give it to you."

Cabe squeezed her hand and dropped it as the door opened and the guards marched in the cartel members, clad in an orange jumpsuit, hands handcuffed. Cabe put his arm out as Happy made to stand, gaze focused on the men, much like a predator watching a prey.

"We've already won, Happy," Cabe said, pinning Happy down with the way he was looking at her - a father looking at his kid.

Cooper followed with the federal prosecutor beside her, evidence cradled in her arms, as if they were more precious than a newborn child.

And just as quickly, Happy's rage calmed and she listened to Cooper present the evidence that would make the La Plaga rot in jail.

"Homeland would like to present the following evidence against the La Plaga cartel – the Mexican-based drug gang involved in kidnapping, being in possession of illegally acquired ransom money and of illegal weaponry," Cooper paused and swallowed before continuing, "and murder."

Happy strained her neck as Cooper spread out the photos on the desk and held up two in her hands.

"Zoe Elia," Cooper said to the judge. "Held hostage by La Plaga, for the purpose of ransom."

"Further evidence obtained by the team, are emailed videos, traced back to a laptop found in the men's room during the raid in Oceanside Motel. Videos of Zoe taped for blackmail were also traced back to the cellular device, owned by one, Miguel Francisco." She placed two more pieces of paper in front of the judge. "Miguel Francisco, identified by DNA testing of the captured men, a long time member of La Plaga."

One of the men in the orange jumpsuits hung his head.

"The denomination of half the ransom money was found at five different banks in which two of the men had set up five different alias. One active credit card was used at Oceanside Motel, the other used in the purchase of machine guns."

Cooper turned to the men and squinted her eyes. "Oceanside Motel – a Manuel Dolores. Guns – Pedro Dolores. Brothers. Members of La Plaga."

Finally, Cooper picked up the remaining two pieces of paper. She gave Happy a small nod before she continued. "Bullets. Three found on the scene, one of which was found in Tobias M. Curtis."

Happy squeezed her eyes shut, clenching her hands into fists as she tried not to let the pain of hearing his name overwhelm her.

"Ballistics has proved that the striations of all three bullets can be traced back to one gun, found 1.8 miles from the crime scene. And through fingerprint and DNA tests, were traced back to Federico Tajo – founder of La Plaga."

The case and verdict was over quickly- with all the evidence against them there was hardly any point of a defence. Finally, Happy was able to watch each of the men be escorted out to the holding cells and she held onto Cabe's hand all the way back to the garage as she tried to tell herself – _it's over, he has justice, this chapter is closed._

* * *

 _Phew that was long! I know it didn't have much interaction/sweet moments between the gang, but stay tuned for the next few chapters when everything is revealed and the aftermath is dealt with!_

 _Thanks again for all the amazing response to this, you guys all rock!_

 _Love y'all (:_


	7. 7: Revelation

_The case might be over, but now is when the actual hard question have to be dealt with..._

* * *

A week after the trial, and Happy was finally making peace with everything, accepting that what she had gotten with Toby was all she would get, but being grateful for those few months nonetheless.

" _Four months are better than nothing, right?" She finally gave Paige, who had dared to ask her again how she was doing, a decent answer._

" _Baby steps," the liaison smiled comfortingly, patting her back. "I'm always here if you need me, we all are."_

Today she found herself staring at the piece of metal in front of her and wondering how she was going to shape it into Toby's fedora. She needed a memorabilia, something physical to remember Toby by that wasn't a picture or something he used to own, because those still hurt too much to see.

She was certain she'd hit a creative roadblock when in her peripheral vision, inspiration walked right under her nose. Quite literally, she saw Toby's fedora floating outside the window opposite her workbench in front her. Sitting on top of Toby's head, his features just obscured by the frosted glass. She watched Toby until something seemed to yank him out of frame of the window and he disappeared out of sight.

She squeezed her eyes shut, pinched her arm, clung onto her workbench, until she was certain that she was awake and that the ground was still solid beneath her feet.

Abandoning the piece of metal, she went to find someone else, needed someone to keep her anchored down to Earth, because she was afraid that she was slipping again, back down the rabbit hole.

Sly was working on his board. Writing furiously, he barely noticed Happy as she stood beside him, gaze flickering around the garage, looking out for Toby's ghost.

"I saw Toby," she whispered to Sly, to the wind, to nothing in particular.

He could've spent his afterlife haunting his ex-fiancee or the man who stole his ex-fiancee but instead, he chose to haunt her. Does he not know he's already in everywhere she looks, everything she touches, every breath she takes?

"He might be haunting me. I never told him, you know?" she said, looking up at Sly, not really expecting anything when he keeps writing formulas she had been barely understand even when she was sane.

"Maybe, I just created his image out of thin air because I miss him so much."

Happy jumped when the garage door opened. She gripped Sly's arm, finally grabbing his attention, both watching the door. If Toby's ghost walked through the door, she wasn't sure...she wasn't sure she would survive seeing him again. Even if he was just a hallucination.

Cabe walked in, followed by Cooper.

"Logic says Toby isn't haunting you, Happy." That was the only indication that Sly had been listening.

Yet, Happy remained tense next to Sly, _something felt off_ _about this_ , and she was all but dragged along to the team meeting as Walter and Paige came down the stairs to meet them.

The two agents stood awkwardly just in front of the couch, not bothering to walk further in. The atmosphere became almost painfully heavy, something was definitely not right.

Cooper glanced at Cabe, noticeably worried before she spoke. "There's something the team has to know. There's been a reason to how tough the past few weeks have been."

"Because Toby died," Happy said, pushing the words that threatened to suffocate her past her throat.

 _Baby steps_ , Paige had told her, but this was more of a giant's gait.

Cooper looked at Happy, with a certain glint of sadness in her eyes. A different kind of sad - the kind that looked a lot like pity. It was the kind that Happy hated.

She looked away. Beside her, Paige gave her arm a light squeeze and she leaned further into Sylvester's side.

Cabe cleared his throat. "Toby -"

The team jumped at the sound of the garage door opening again, and for the second time that day, Happy felt like she had completely lost her mind.

There stood Toby, halted at the doorway, frozen by the sight of six pair of eyes staring at him.

He paused then slowly raised his hand in a wave, "Hey."

Cooper sighed. Cabe shook his head.

"You haven't explained it to them yet, have you?"

Silence answered him. Happy gasped for a breath her body wouldn't let her take, wondering if what she was feeling now was what Toby had felt in Elia's server room after Walter flipped the switch. She looked away, focused her gaze on the tiniest thread coming loose on Sly's sweater vest, as an overwhelming urge to simultaneously cry and throw up surged through her.

"As you can all see, Toby is alive," Cabe said. At the word 'alive', something in Happy splintered- perhaps her sanity or her soul. "The truth is, he _was_ actually shot trying to prevent the cartel from getting away- that was something we didn't expect. But, the bullet wound wasn't as serious as it initially seemed, and they managed to fix him up pretty fast."

Cooper nodded and took over. "But then we figured, for the sake of the case, that we could play it up to make the cartel think they'd done serious damage and let down their guard around us. So we made the spontaneous decision to fake his death. It would make Scorpion seem weakened and vulnerable, and hopefully the La Plaga would be less cautious when dealing with us and let something slip."

"Which," Cabe picked up again, "to be fair, they did. I'm sure you remember how hard their encryption was to crack in Mexico, but this time they thought we weren't watching. They got sloppy, and Sly and Walter got into their emails in minutes."

Happy obediently stood still and listened to the rest of the explanation and for the whole time, kept her gaze away from meeting the rest of the team's.

"Toby's been living on a rural farm in the outskirts of Laramie, Wyoming for the past six weeks. We linked him up to a secured wireless connection through which he was able to watch and hear you for most of the time that you had your comms in and there were cameras nearby."

"And of course, Cooper and I gave him weekly updates of whatever we could. Toby had nothing to do with the plan; the higher-ups forced us to do this. We're sorry but this was the only way to get the cartel even slightly off our backs for just long enough to get something on them."

The whole meeting sounded, looked, _smelled_ like what Happy imagined betrayal would be.

Maybe Toby hadn't had a say in the plan, and she never had much of a relationship with Cooper anyway, but _Cabe._ Happy could have killed him if not for the rest of the team surrounding her. He had spent the last six weeks with the team, grieving with them and trying to comfort them. He had voluntarily taken her to the trial to get closure. He had lent them his precious SUV to move Toby's things. _And he had known the whole time?_

She finally managed to drag herself out of the thoughts pounding through her brain, and looked up to see that Toby had come to stand next to the two Homeland agents, facing them, facing her.

He was so...alive, so real, so _here_. He looked like he'd lost a little bit of weight and his skin was a shade darker, but there was so much light in his eyes- the shine of eagerness and hope and love that never failed to lift her up. He looked like the closest thing to heaven. And she was afraid that he'd vanish into thin air.

Paige was the first to break away and welcomed Toby back with a hug, tearing up again though for the first time in a long time they were tears of joy. Then was Walter, starting to babble about increased work production until Paige elbowed him sharply in the ribs. Sly followed closely behind, almost crushing Toby in his excitement to have his friend and brother back.

And suddenly Happy was alone, exposed, and feeling like the world was made of cracked glass in a vacuum, just a step away from shattering. The next move could result in oblivion, but she didn't care because the next thing she knew, she was stepping into Toby's personal space and pushing him back.

"I hate you!" she screamed, continuing to push him like each push could turn back time. She forced herself to ignore the raw pain ripping through his features as he stumbled back, unable to even conceive the idea of laying a hand on Happy, even if in self-defence. "I hate you! I swear to God I'm going to kill you myself, you sick son of a-"

"Happy, stop. Please. This isn't the best way to handle this," Paige clamoured, putting a hand on her shoulder, the brief distraction allowing Toby to slip just out of Happy's reach.

Happy whipped around. "The _best_ way? _Handling_ this?" she shouted, slapping Paige's hand away. "You know what isn't the best way to handle a situation, Paige? Pretending to die and not informing the team!"

"It was better that way," Cabe said, bracing himself to face the onslaught of Happy's anger.

She stormed towards Cabe and even despite all of his Marines training he felt afraid of her. "You know what would have been better?" she cried, heart in her throat. "Not spending the last few weeks feeling like the only thing better than closing my eyes, would be never opening them again. I don't- I…"

She trailed off, her last words barely above a whisper.

The garage had fallen silent. Happy hung her head– there was no point in fighting any further, what had been done had been done, and Toby was alive.

 _Alive._ The word bounced on the walls of her brain.

 _Alive._

And the next thing she knew, she was being wrapped in a hug – solid, warm, _real_ , and all she could do was to bury her head in Toby's chest and breathe in his scent. He smelled more of the earth and days spent in the sun, but beneath all that, he still smelled like Toby, like home.

He pressed a kiss to the top of her head, and whispered muffled words into her hair that sounded a lot like, "I'm here, Hap. I'm never leaving you again."

* * *

 _He's back! It's not going to be pretty for a while though, so stay tuned to see how that turns out!_

 _As always, thank you so much for all the incredible support you guys are giving us, we really appreciate it!_

 _Much love (:_


	8. 8: Regrouping

_I'm baaack! Yay finally got my laptop back and I can update this again! So sorry for the long wait guys!_

* * *

 _He pressed a kiss to the top of her head, and whispered muffled words into her hair that sounded a lot like, "I'm here, Hap. I'm never leaving you again."_

Toby slipped his hands under her jacket to rub her back, comforting her in a way that had become a habit during the four months they were together. The familiarity flipped something in Happy and instead, it produced a far different result than Toby had intended. It made her _remember_.

She abruptly pulled out of his embrace and pushed him away again. "Don't do that."

"Hap." Toby staggered back, the combined force of her physical push and the coldness of her voice.

"Don't do it. Don't pretend that the past six weeks didn't happen."

Paige stepped forward quickly, a hand on Happy's arm, trying to calm her as she and the team had for the past month and a half. Handing Happy over to Walter, Paige turned to Toby, shaking her head apologetically.

"She's been like that ever since…" Paige sighed, trying to rephrase her words. "The smallest, most unexpected thing can bring her to her flashpoint, we haven't had much success helping her out. You were always the only one who could get close to her."

"I'll never give up on her, no matter what it takes." Toby replied, the conviction in his voice tinged with pain as he watched Happy struggle against Walter and Sylvester.

Paige offered him the best smile she could, "Just be patient with her. You've always been good at that." She patted his shoulder in silent encouragement before leading the three new arrivals further into the garage.

They all settled around the centre table, Happy as far away from Toby as the geometry of a rectangle- and the fairly disapproving looks of the others- allowed. Sylvester looked up at Cabe and Cooper. "Will Toby actually being alive overturn the conviction?" he asked, clearly nervous. "I mean, one of your biggest pieces of your evidence is clearly a fluke."

Cooper shook her head firmly. "The judge knew the truth before the trial. The evidence was the bullet striations, not necessarily Toby dying. Their actual charges were drawn up so Toby's return wouldn't affect the outcome. Even without that point, we have more than enough on them to keep them locked up for a very long time. Toby 'dying' was more a precaution to keep them away from you than to bear much weight to their trial."

She paused, looking rather guiltily around at the team before continuing. "I'm not going to insult any of you by pretending to know what you went through. But we felt it was a necessary evil we had to take."

She looked like she had more to say, but was interrupted when her phone rang. She rushed to answer it before excusing herself from the team, saying something about a meeting with another agent over a new case. The team watched her leave wordlessly, the renewed silence after the door closed ringing in everyone's ears.

"I know it's different," Toby eventually spoke up softly, breaking the quiet. "But you guys lost one friend. I lost all of you, I had no one up there."

" _Pity._ "

"Hap?" For the first time in a long time, since even before Cabe and Paige, he was genuinely frightened of what she might do.

"Of course it's different, you _jerk_ ," Happy spat at him with renewed vigour, roughly shrugging off the hand Sylvester had tried to rest on her shoulder. "You were able to watch and hear us, you were having a jolly good time. We thought you were _dead_."

Toby closed his eyes and bowed his head, unable to respond to all the pain he had caused the one person he loved more than anything else in the world.

"You knew you were going to come back," she continued, not wanting to care about his feelings at the moment. "We didn't have that luxury."

"Go easy on him kid, it's not-"

"You don't even get to _look_ at me!" She snapped at Cabe, before turning her attention back to Toby. "While you were frolicking in the fields, we were at your funeral. I have your fucking _flag_ in my _room_."

The garage fell quiet after Happy ended her outburst. She tried to get her breathing under control again while the rest, although they didn't agree with the way she had said them, were unable to deny her words.

Toby felt his heart break for Happy. He knew that the pain he had felt, how much he had missed her, was nothing compared to what she had had to go through. They had gotten through so much to finally be together, and he was terrified that this just might be what tore them apart for good.

Nobody knew how to continue after that, but they were thankfully saved by the sound of small footsteps pattering down the stairs. "Uncle Toby?"

The adults downstairs froze, even Paige had forgotten that Ralph had been taking a nap upstairs as he always did before they left for home. The boy continued down the stairs, Ferret Bueller sitting still on his shoulder as if even the animal knew this was a serious moment.

"I… I couldn't help overhearing most of the things from upstairs."

"New intercom system works great." Toby offered one of his more infamous one-liners from happier times, and not even Happy could resist the slight melancholic upturn of her lips.

Ralph didn't quite get the reference, having being in Portland back then, but the sight of the adults smiling again was enough to make him smile as well. "Ferret Bueller seemed to realise you were back too, so I decided to bring him down as well."

As if on cue, the ferret jumped off Ralph's shoulder, scuttering across the table to Toby, standing on its hind legs, dooking and trying to kiss his face.

"Hey Bueller, hey kiddo," Toby scratched the ferret between its ears before turning to Ralph and ruffling his hair. "I'm so sorry buddy."

"It's okay, Uncle Toby. I'm just really happy you're back." He gave Toby a quick but tight hug before walking around the table to settle on his mother's lap.

"We all are, Toby," Paige affirmed her son's statement. "We _all_ are." She turned to shoot Happy a look that clearly said _behave_ , but the latter just rolled her eyes and shifted in her seat more toward Sylvester, and away from Toby.

Paige tried to lead the others into filling Toby in on what had happened during the weeks he was gone, but there was little to be said that wasn't too painful to be discussed so soon, and that attempt at conversation became awkward and died down pretty fast.

"Alright, I think it's time I got Toby home," Cabe said after several more minutes of tense and uncomfortable silence, standing up and cracking his knuckles against the edge of the table. "And you all need to rest."

Toby would have walked out were it not for the letter and email sent to him two weeks earlier. "Actually, that was the other thing. I don't really have an apartment to go home to." He kicked at a leg of his chair, unsure of what to do.

"Well, you can stay here for as long as you need," Walter offered.

"And we can help you look for an apartment. Right, Ralph?" Ralph nodded at his mother, eyes bright as he turned back to Toby.

Sylvester was about to join in the conversation when Happy spoke up, much more timidly than her outburst just minutes before.

"I… You can stay with me, I suppose."

Toby's expression turned to one of shock and disbelief at her 180-degree change. He had been half sure that she was going to break up with him if anything, never had he expected her to offer for him to stay with her. He stopped himself from getting his hopes up just yet however, unsure if Happy actually realised the full extent of what she was offering.

Toby looked at everyone uncertainly before speaking cautiously, "I'm looking for somewhere to live for a while, not crash for a night."

Happy shrugged, eyes trained on the wood grain of the table. "I'm not stupid. I know what I'm saying and I'm saying, you can live with me for the time being. I mean, most of your stuff is at my place anyway so it's just easier for everyone. Paige can still help you look for an apartment in the meantime."

Toby was speechless, but Paige's subtle thumbs up and Sylvester's smile gave him hope.

Happy's features hardened again, mistakenly interpreting his silence for unwillingness or rejection. "But it's… whatever. Do whatever you want. I can bring your stuff over tomorrow. My opinion hasn't mattered much around here for a while anyway."

Toby searched her face, and between his skills and how well he knew her, he recognised that despite the hard facade she had put up, there was a touch of vulnerability, of desperation and needing him back.

"No, that's not what I- I mean, yes, yes I'd love to stay with you, Hap. If you're sure."

Happy nodded almost imperceptibly, the slightest smile on her face that only he knew her well enough to recognize. As she stood up to go pack her things, the unnecessarily wide turn she took to avoid Cabe was painfully obvious, and it was clear to everyone that it would be a while before things fully went back to normal- if they ever would, that is.

Toby looked back at Walter and shrugged one shoulder, and Walter answered back with a look that said _Well, if that's what she wants_ ,but also, _please take care of the only sister I have left._

* * *

 _Whoo that was an emotional rollercoaster! The next few chapters are going to be about everyone healing and coming to terms with everything that has happened so be prepared for an angst and emotion filled ride! Thanks again for being so patient with this!_

 _Much love!_


	9. 9: Recovery

_And the tension between the gang continues..._

* * *

"Morning gang! Brought y'all breakfast from Kavalskey's!" The door opened to reveal Cabe, almost struggling to balance the coffee on top of a large box of food.

He had given them the weekend to rest and come to terms with everything- also the paperwork involved in faking the death of a Homeland consultant was intense- but he had no idea what he was going to come in to find on the Monday after.

It was worse than he had hoped.

Paige and Toby managed small smiles from their respective corners, though the painfully large void between the latter and his girlfriend didn't go unnoticed by the agent. Sylvester raised his head briefly but glanced away the moment he made eye contact with Cabe. Walter didn't even bother looking over the railing of the loft as he usually did, and Happy continued hammering a sheet of metal with far more force than Cabe was sure was necessary.

Sighing, he walked to the center table to put down the boxes and open them up. The wafting aroma of hot bagels and doughnuts that usually brought the geniuses running from their respective corners, today piqued about as much interest as a week old newspaper.

Paige got up from her desk and walked up to him, trying to retain some sense of normalcy as she could. "Thanks for the food, but I think you know it's going to take a while for them to come back around. The past weekend wasn't pretty for any of-"

"Paige!" Walter's voice interrupted her, so loud that it startled Sylvester into dropping his chalk.

The liaison looked up to see Walter at the top of the staircase, some electronic component in his hand as he glared down at her and Cabe. "Paige," he repeated, calmer this time although anger still laced his voice. "Would you come up here for a moment? _Please_."

She sighed and nodded, excusing herself from Cabe before heading up the stairs. If this were a normal day, Toby would only be too eager to sprint to the nearest intercom terminal and eavesdrop, Happy and Sylvester not-so-subtly listening in as well.

But this was definitely not a normal day.

Cabe couldn't quite hear what was being said upstairs, but he could plainly see the three geniuses left on the ground floor. Sylvester had gone back to furiously scribbling on his board, almost as if, if he could churn out enough formulas they would keep him safe from the rest of the world. Happy had switched to her power tools- the mechanical prodigy's way of saying F-you to the world. And Toby, Toby was sitting at his desk, gazing so longingly at her it was even more painful than the few weeks of the Chet debacle.

The agent was just about to go up the shrink and try to get something out of him when Walter's yells permeated the garage again.

"-the second time he has acted innocent and pretended he doesn't know anything, when in fact he was behind the whole thing. How many more time does he have to fool us before you learn Paige? Huh? Three? Four? Ten? _How many!_ "

There was a beat of silence just long enough for Paige to have said his name, trying to get him to calm down, before he continued.

"The last time Ralph almost died, and now it's Toby. Which of us would you like to sacrifice next? _"_

The lower floor fell silent after the outburst, even had Happy put down her tools and removed her safety mask to listen better. Paige must have been saying something too soft to be heard because Walter's voice rang out again.

"No! The last time you invoked the greater good, you said it had been fifteen years and I should move on. This has barely been fifteen hours!"

Another beat of silence.

"I don't care! We managed to catch them once and we could have done it again. Were you not there the last six weeks? Did you not see what it did to the team? There were a _million_ other ways!"

"I really am sorry," Cabe said quietly to everyone and no one at the same time.

"Shouldn't have played with fire if you didn't want to get burned." Happy stated, emotionless, before going back to work.

The fact that she spoke at all, and the cold steel of her voice, stunned Cabe into silence, as the argument continued upstairs. His phone buzzed with a text message and he picked it up to see it was from Toby. He looked up to see the Doc nodding at him subtly, and opened the message.

 _Let them be. Hap and Walt haven't said a thing to us the whole weekend._

Frowning, Cabe texted back. _Even at home?_

 _She showed me where my stuff was, but after that... Remember the time I missed the date? She would have married me that day in comparison.  
_  
The agent sighed; he had never planned for it to go this far. _I'm so sorry son, I shouldn't have made you do that. They're never going to forgive me, are they?_

He saw Toby shrug, and then a new message came through moments later. _I'm sure they will, just give it time. I'm getting regret and longing markers from Hap but I'll let her get there in her own time.  
_  
 _It'll probably be like after the Baghdad reveal, possibly longer, but hopefully with less cliff diving._ Toby's second message came through before Cabe could respond, and he glanced across the garage again to see Toby with a small smirk across his face, trying to act as normal as he could.

Cabe nodded and pocketed his phone; there was nothing that could be said in this moment.

Paige finally came down a few minutes later, clearly perturbed but still offered Cabe a tight smile as she went back to her desk. Bracing for another outburst from Walter, Cabe walked over to Paige, sitting down heavily in a chair beside her.

"I knew it was going to be ugly, but the higher-ups were anxious to get them off our streets and Cooper it might work."

"Well it did," Paige said in her steady mediator voice. "But I don't think you should repeat that to any of them. They see you as the father most of them never had, and for you to lie about something as painful as Toby dying... I know they're about the greater good, but maybe just this time, logic and rationality weren't the best move to play."

Cabe nodded solemnly. "There were so many times I wanted to let protocol go to hell and just tell you. Especially the way she..." He trailed off, glancing at Happy who was back to taking her emotions out on whatever piece was in front of her.

"The Doc just told me she's been hard on him too."

Paige blinked between the couple. "I figured something wasn't right. They come in together, but it's way too early and they leave far too late, and she tries to keep as large a distance as she can from him between that."

Cabe looked down, more broken than he had been for a long time. "She can take it out on me, I'd gladly let her hate me for as long as I live, but it's not his fault. He didn't get a say in the matter. When we called, we could barely get a word in without him asking about her. She was the only concern in his mind. Well, the rest of you also, but you know what I mean."

"I'm sure she still loves him, she just needs time." Paige said sadly. "It took her so long to accept him being gone, I can't even imagine..."

Cabe's phone rang again, this time not a message from Toby. "Hello? Yes, I'm here with them... Do we absolutely need them?" he shared a glance with Paige before turning away from the rest of them and lowering his voice. "Okay, but it's not going to be pretty Katherine, just prepare yourself."

* * *

The case was easy enough, the military had lost contact with some drones over the Middle East and needed Scorpion to help track and regain control before they potentially crash landed into enemy hands. Walter and Sylvester took care of the software, rebooting the drones and landing them in a friendly air base, after which Happy talked the soldiers through some hardwiring to ensure the signals didn't fail again.

They managed to complete the mission from the garage and there were thankfully no life-threatening snafus this time around. Walter and Happy worked with an alarming lack of emotion- almost worse than their first few cases- although nobody valued their life so little as to question it. Sylvester looked like he would throw up from anxiety by sitting between them, but neither took it out on the younger genius and he proceeded on cautiously.

"There, done." Walter stated plainly as Happy finished with the soldiers and he checked the software for the last time. He turned to Cabe and Cooper, rage flashing in his eyes. "You can leave now."

"Walter..."

"What? We have completed the job they asked of us and so now they can leave."

"Ditto." Happy set her jaw. "Unless you have any other mess of yours we have to clean up, get out."

Paige looked at the rest, pleading, but neither Toby nor Sylvester dared to speak up.

"Okay," Cabe sighed, "look, you can be mad with us-"

Walter laughed harshly. "Oh trust me, we are."

Cabe nodded at him before continuing. "But please don't take it out on the Doc. God knows he's been through enough."

"Oh really? Didn't know he'd been told anyone _he_ cared about had died." Happy snapped before turning to Toby. "And what the _hell_ did you tell him."

"Hap," Toby tried, but she didn't let him.

"If you're going to go around telling people our business, it's _Happy_."

Even Walter seemed somewhat stunned at that, but Toby had promised he'd never give up on her, and he was going to keep that promise if it was the last thing he did.

"I-"

He was interrupted again, this time thankfully by Ralph who had just been dropped off by a friend. The boy hovered awkwardly around the door, sensing that the atmosphere was tense and not quite knowing what to do. After all, if his mother couldn't diffuse the situation, it had to be _bad_.

Cooper gave Ralph as reassuring a smile as she could muster, she had always had a soft spot for the young genius ever since she met him. "We should go," she said to Cabe. "He probably needs to rest, and we're not making this any better."

Cabe nodded, resigned. "Take care kid- team. Take care, team."

He dared to look back before stepping out the door, to see Walter already heading back up the stairs, Paige ushering her son up behind him. Happy was roughly dragging Toby toward her workshop area in the back, no doubt to lash out at him some more, and only Sylvester was left at the main terminal, looking more vulnerable than ever, offering Cabe the slightest wave.

* * *

Cabe knew, given the way things had gone down the first case after Toby returned, that it would take a very long time for things to go back to normal, if ever. Which was why, two weeks after that case, the last thing he expected as he walked into his Homeland office after a meeting, was to see Walter and Happy standing there as awkwardly as two school children in the principal's office.

He would have asked them how they got in without anyone informing him, but the two very realistic-looking badges peeking out of Happy's sling bag answered the question before he needed to ask it.

"... Is everything okay? I'm sorry if I missed any calls or texts, they had a compulsory meeting going on." Cabe pulled out his phone to see no missed notifications and frowned. "Anything happened?"

The two looked at each other before Walter spoke. "We, uh… We were acting on emotion the last two weeks, and taking it out on you."

"Son…"

"That's not to say that we agree with what you did," Walter added on hurriedly. "I have computed several other scenarios in which we could have achieved the same end result without a fraction of the disruption that was forced on the team-"

"But just because there were other possible methods, doesn't mean that yours didn't work." Happy added, stopping Walter from going on a tangent. "We were acting rashly and, uh, we're… we're sorry."

Cabe had to sit down to absorb what he was hearing, he couldn't believe that the two most headstrong of the team- who were more than justified in hating him- had just come down to his office to apologize.

"You don't have to apologize for anything," he reassured them quickly. "What we did to you wasn't fair, we should have consulted you on any other plan before making the executive decision."

"It sucked like hell," Happy replied, "and yeah, you should have talked to us. But what's done is done, and it did work, so we need to accept that and move on." She offered a tight smile.

"Read another book by one of the Doc's old nemeses again?" Cabe tried to lighten the mood, but Happy's face hardened again at the mention of Toby and he knew had made a massive misstep. "Kid…"

"Leave it alone, Cabe."

The agent opened his mouth to say something nonetheless, but Walter shot him a warning look from over Happy's shoulder and he stopped.

"I know he had nothing to do with the planning, and he had only one way communication from our side, but he-" She seemed to catch herself before she revealed too much. "I'll figure it out, but don't you dare say anything."

"Right," Walter spoke up again, knowing Happy didn't want any further discussion about her relationship status. "So yes, we discussed this issue and want to say that we understand now, and we apologize, and I'm sure Sly and Paige do too. Uhm… I guess this is the point I would be expected to say see you around."

Cabe smiled warmly at them, never expecting them to even talk to him, let alone apologize and take the effort to make attempts at normal conversation. "Of course, son. I'll come by tomorrow, if that's okay with you."

Both geniuses nodded and smiled back. For an outsider it wouldn't seem like much, but Cabe knew that for Walter and Happy, it was almost equivalent to a sleepover invitation.

"Okay. Bye." Walter quipped, turning toward the door, eager to get out of there. After all, standing around in Cabe's office was not productive at all. Happy followed Walter's lead, as always; he was the only person she fully respected, Toby being a completely different case, of course.

Cabe watched them leave, feeling better than he had in over two months. Sure enough, when he brought another food peace offering in the next morning, they were acting like nothing much had happened in the weeks past. Needless to say the others were surprised, and Toby seemed a bit hurt that Happy had warmed up to Cabe before him, but they still gratefully accepted the peace and let nature continue its course.

* * *

 _Hope you guys enjoyed that! All the support for this, it's amazing, thanks guys!_

 _The next chapter will be super Quintis-heavy, so stay tuned for that!_

 _Love you guys!_


	10. 10: Regeneration

_Hey guys! Here is the super Quintis-centric chapter as promised, enjoy!_

* * *

"Have I ever told you how small your hands are?"

The end credits of the movie were rolling on the screen as Happy looked at him from where she sat beside him on the couch, arms brushing, knees touching, fingers interlaced. He looked back with his signature smirk on his lips. It was a running joke between them, had been since before they were even together. But somehow, those pleasant memories only highlighted the emotions she'd been trying to bury over the last nine weeks.

 _Nine weeks._

Six weeks she had thought he was dead, and then another three since Toby had come back - released from that tiny room in that tiny motel in that tiny town, brought back by Cabe and Cooper to his family. To _her_.

It had by no means been easy.

Happy hadn't been gentle when making Toby feel the full impact of her pain. His tear-stained flag remained on the bedside table on his side of the bed, where she had placed it after coming home from the funeral, having bawled into it as soon as she shut the front door. The framed photograph she took from his room was laying face down on top of it, as if she needed its proximity but looking at it would rip her soul out all over again. His clothes remained stacked outside her closet and they were rumpled in a way that revealed to him how she initially had folded them carefully but had subsequently laid in them, surrounding herself in his scent and trying to pretend the pile of cotton and denim was him instead.

Far too frequently during the nights, Happy would sneak out of bed and stay up on the couch where Toby would find her hours later, empty eyes staring blankly past him. She had been sleeping without him for so long, finally accepting that she never would again, that when she rolled over and found herself tucked in his arms, it was too much to handle. Toby had prided himself on the fact that he had gotten her to slowly start opening up to him ever since they started dating, but now… now it seemed she'd rather open up to _Cooper_ than him.

Happy did start to recover though, physically at least, eating properly again although dinners at home were mostly painfully quiet and distant and ended as soon as possible. She had patched up her relationships with the rest over the weeks, apologizing for being so difficult and thanking them for helping and putting up with her. (Sylvester and Paige had just hugged her, Walter had grinned and quipped how this hopefully made up for all the trouble he had caused her after the fallout with Collins. She had somehow made up with Cabe too, although Toby didn't quite know what had transpired between the agent, her and Walter). But when it came to Toby himself…

He knew it was a miracle that she hadn't shifted away from him or pulled her hand away. Apart from accidental brushes against each other, she had barely let him touch her for the first few days, let alone go back to the intimacy that he had craved the whole time he was kept away from her. The distance she was keeping now, when he was alive, was more painful than even the belief that he was dead - she knew it and he knew she knew it.

She was getting there, painstakingly slow and even more guarded that she had been before, but she was getting there. _They_ were getting there. Not like before, but he took what precious little he got, accepted it with as much gratitude and desperation as a man lost in a desert for days takes his first drink of cold water.

"Hap?" He prodded gently when she remained silent for too long, squeezing their interlaced hands. The worry and pain evident was in his eyes but he fought against himself to keep the smirk on his face, for her sake.

"No," she whispered, shaking her head, pulling her hand from his. Toby frowned, heartbroken but determined to make the best out of it, to make some progress.

"Well I should have, because they're just so tiny and-"

"No," She repeated more forcefully, turning to face him. "Don't. Don't do that. Don't pretend I haven't been hurting for the past nine weeks and grieved over you for six of them." Her bottom lip had started quivering and she tried to blink away the blurriness in her vision. "Don't act like nothing happened. Don't- don't act like those weeks can be disregarded just because you're alive."

She was practically hysterical by the end of it, her words getting caught and tangled with her sobs.

Toby could only gaze at Happy for the first few moments, the shock at seeing her breakdown intermixing with the renewed heartbreak he felt for everything she had been through. He slowly reached an arm out to her, gingerly resting his hand on her shoulder and rubbing his thumb against the skin exposed by her tank top.

It was only then that he realised his resident clothes thief hadn't worn a single article of his clothing in the weeks since he had returned.

"Happy -"

"You have _no_ idea how hard it was. You were everywhere and in everything. I was going crazy. That damn ferret crawled up to my workbench one day and I just had to drop everything and leave and cry, because you _know_ what that case meant to me, to _us_ , and-"

He was barely able to get her name out again before she finally fell against him, tripping over innumerable apologies as she cried even harder into his chest.

They stayed like that for so long that neither could keep track of time. Her sobs wracking the both of them as he gripped her even closer into him, apologizing for himself and uttering whatever reassurances he could.

Finally, she pulled away, eyes bloodshot and face blotched with tears. "I shouldn't have yelled at you," she apologized for the hundredth time, shaking her head, wiping away her with the heels of her palms. "I'm sorry that I keep doing that, getting angry at you and blaming you and pushing you away. I know none of this was your fault or idea and you had no say in any of it, but I just don't know what to do." Tears choked her again.

"I don't know what to feel."

He misunderstood her words at first, heart leaping to his throat as his mind replayed her words, like a stereo played a CD with a scratch, conjuring up the worst case scenario that he had been praying wouldn't happen since they moment they got together. "Hap, please don't-" he choked out.

"I'm not," she said firmly, finally feeling again, in what had felt like forever, like she had a reason to live. She needed to feel alive, and she needed him.

She looked at Toby, her eyes showing nothing but honesty, innocence and helplessness, and in that moment, he knew he would do anything for her.

"Fix me, Toby." She implored, wrapping her arms around him again, and burying her face into the base of his neck. "I need you. Please."

* * *

To say things magically became good again after that evening would be glorifying the situation. But it did start getting better.

They tried to go back to living the way they did before the whole mess. Toby leading the way back and Happy, slowly but surely, started catching up to him.

 _Baby steps_ , Paige had told her, and she clung on to that advice with all of her might. She'd make it work. He'd make sure they made it work. Together.

Happy would still wake up every night, still unable to process Toby's arms around her, but now she let him hold her, let him tell her whatever she wanted him to, let him _love her_ until she fell back to sleep in his warm embrace.

Meals at home gradually went back to being peppered with their quips and snarky banter, although Happy hardly brought up the recent past, and Toby didn't want to push her. She cleaned up the room, clearing closet space for him to keep his clothes neatly. The flag was tucked into the back corner of the storage cupboard- it would provide for interesting future conversations, but not anytime soon- and that picture that Toby loved so much was standing on the bedside table on his side again.

The symbolic and emotional aspects of their relationship were getting back on track, but Happy still reeled from most physical contact like his touch burned her. Toby couldn't help but feel the irony in the situation- the first four months of their relationship and even before they had officially gotten together, especially after the undercover case at the university; it was the physical that Happy felt comfortable in, the emotions being hard for her to come to terms with. But now, now it felt like their entire world had been turned on its head.

In the end, it took twenty-six days after he reappeared in her life for them to finally, _finally_ , find themselves pressed flush against each other again, something that seemed so familiar and yet so distant at the same time.

It was only when he pulled off her shirt that he properly saw her necklace, and its pendant, for the first time. He moved to hold the ring as if in a trance, the slow and almost reverent action a sharp contrast to their desperate, heated, frenzy just a few seconds ago, and she shivered at the combined sensation of the cool metal and his fingertips grazing her sternum.

"Happy, I-"

She shook her head gently. "They made me clean out your apartment and I found this and I just had to," she moved to clasp her own hand around his that was holding the ring. "When were you…"

"Whenever you were ready," he answered softly but full of conviction. "I know it's presumptuous to get a ring so early on but I really do want to spend the rest of my life with you Happy, if you'd let me. And I hope you'd let it be with this."

She smiled at him, eyes shining. "The last few weeks had taught me nothing else than how much I need you. I really do want to spend the rest of my life with you too, Toby. I just…" she glanced back down at their hands intertwined around the ring. "Maybe not this just yet, okay?"

"Of course." He tucked a lock of hair behind her ear, brushing his lips against the newly exposed skin. "If and when you want."

She rested her forehead against his in response, pressing her lips to his in a kiss that both used to express all the emotions that had been left unsaid, that were unable to be said.

Something in Toby changed, and he pulled away to look at her seriously, holding both her hands in his. "So I take this means you also found the…"

"Journals?" Happy offered, and bit her lip as something flashed in Toby's eyes.

"They're in a cupboard in the spare room." She tried to avoid talking about them, but the wavering vulnerability on Toby's face made her change her mind.

"I couldn't get myself to read anything beyond than the first page of every book," she said with a sad smile. "It was almost as if you were right there reading them to me and it hurt too much to go on. I'm so sorry Toby, I had no idea how much I'd hurt you over the-"

He cut her off by shaking his head. "I figured you would've seen them. And it's okay Hap; I was the furthest thing from perfect myself. After all, everything that happened brought us to where we are," he looked down and frowned, "or at least where we were." He looked up at her again, the loving smile he kept just for her adorning his face again. "As far as I'm concerned, that makes it all worthwhile."

Happy honestly didn't know how to respond to that, so she just pulled his shirt over his head and kissed him hard, and finally told him the words she had always wanted to.

"I love you."

* * *

 _Hope you guys enjoyed that! A few of you asked for an explanation behind Happy and Walter forgiving Cabe, but I couldn't quite find a place to fit it into this chapter so keep a look out for the next one! (fair warning, it might be a little anti-climatic, more discussion than any major event but hopefully it makes sense heh)_

 _Thanks again for all the support guys!_

 _Much love!_


	11. 11: Forever

_So... this is the last chapter of Valhalla, hopefully we've wrapped up everything okay (:_

* * *

It was fairly early in the morning a few days later when Toby and Happy were sitting around the kitchen area of the garage, having decided to skip breakfast at home because, to quote Toby, "leaching off Walt is way more fun". They were alone for now; Paige and Walter had just gone to drop Ralph off to school (not before having to put up with Toby's smirks and not-so- subtle innuendos), and Cabe and Sly had not come in yet.

"Can I ask you something, if you won't get mad?" Toby asked gingerly, and Happy nodded at him to continue. "What exactly happened between you, Walt and Cabe? Because one day the two of you were planning his murder and the next it was like nothing ever happened… I'm just a bit curious that's all, you don't have to tell me if you don't want to." He added quickly. Their relationship had improved by leaps and bounds since the night she finally broke down on the couch, but he was still scared of triggering her back to building up her walls again.

Happy offered him a tight smile. "Honestly, I was wondering why you hadn't asked about it for this long. Look," she sighed heavily. "What happened, what we went through, I wouldn't wish that even on my worst enemy, and the worst part about it was that Cabe knew the truth and he still hung around us, acting like he was a victim too."

"But, as Walt and I discussed, the team has never been stronger than when we're working for Homeland, and you know the two of us have been here the longest, so you can trust us when we say that."

Toby nodded, a sign that he understood the gravity of the situation, and Happy continued.

"Also, we're not stupid, Toby. We know how we acted that first case after, with the drones; we had reverted to our old selves, like the past two years never happened. I mean, what really hit us was how scared Sly was of having to work with us- he hasn't been so anxious and frightened of us since the peak of all the nonsense with Collins. We made Sly afraid of us again after all these years, and he forgave us, but we still can't forgive ourselves for that."

"It's all understandable, Hap. I'm sure-" Toby tried to reassure her, but she motioned for him to let her get it all out.

"We don't need our intellect to know that what's best for all of us is for the team is to work together, and with Homeland; and if we are forced to deal with their stupidity to do it, then we have to. It's going back to the greater good, Toby- for us and for everyone we've helped save since."

"You mean the entire world, a few times over?" Toby gently nudged her foot with his from under the table.

She smiled briefly at him, grateful for how he could always lighten the mood, before continuing. "Besides, the last time we kicked Cabe out…" Happy's gaze drifted up to the loft, and Toby didn't need words to know how terrified she had been about Walter, and the situation of the team as a whole, that summer.

"It's not back to normal, just so you know, I don't think it can ever be. But yeah, the team needs this, so we patched things up with Cabe the best we could and we… we're willing to keep up this status quo. I sincerely hope he knows better than to double-cross us a third time though, because-"

"Third time is definitely _not_ a charm?"

"Understatement of the century," she muttered, standing up to get more coffee- a silent but firm marker that the conversation was over.

The mostly comfortable yet still slightly tense silence that had become all too familiar over the past few weeks settled around them as Happy sat back down. Toby pushed his scrambled eggs around half-heartedly for a few moments, not too enthusiastic to bring up the second topic he had wanted to discuss that morning. "Also, I went to talk to my former landlord about getting back my apartment."

"Former?" Happy asked, biting into her toast, her tone back to normal as if the previous conversation never happened. And Toby was smart enough to know he shouldn't bring it up again unless there were extenuating circumstances.

"Yeah. Former. He said he already rented out my apartment, so I should really take up Paige on her offer to help me look. Speaking of," Toby said, before he looked up from his plate and smirked as he scanned the still-empty garage. "Those two are really taking their time today."

"Why?" The question escaped Happy before she could process it.

"Because I need a place to live and she offered to help me look..." Toby replied slowly, ending it almost as a question, before his tone lightened up and he winked at her. "You need to come too though, make sure you like the place enough to spend frequent nights over."

Happy bit the inside of her cheek, running over her next words carefully. Toby recognized her empty stare of when she's deep in thought and watched her cautiously, uncertain of what she could be thinking of so much in this conversation.

"But why do you need a new place?" She asked eventually, expression neutral.

"Because my old one is currently being rented by a group of kids who I'm 99% sure are druggies?"

"No, no." She cracked her knuckles against the edge of the table as was her habit when frustrated, and Toby was lost by her inner thought processes again. "As in… I mean, what's wrong with mine?"

Toby dropped his fork in surprise, the metal clanging against the porcelain. "What?"

She shrugged casually, as if she had just asked him if he wanted more salt. "Well it's been almost a month and things seem to be going pretty well, so why bother moving?"

Toby rested his hands on the table, as he searched her face for a sign of anything less than seriousness. "Hap, you do know what you're asking right?"

She shrugged again, "Even before this… thing, we were spending most nights over anyway, and honestly having you around 24/7 isn't so bad."

She was teasing at the end, but there was still a hint of fear and uncertainty that coloured her tone, and Toby knew, he knew she was asking in fear of him leaving her again. Him moving to his own place, even if it were mere minutes away from hers, was still her losing him in some way. She had just gotten used to having him back, and she liked her sleep not riddled with nightmares, and instead cocooned by him.

"And besides it's not just about finding a new place, you still have to move and get settled in and God knows what the new owner and neighbours are like. It's just going to be a mess. But we're stable, right? What we have, what we are? Because stable is good. " She paused and looked at him before continuing in a much softer and more vulnerable tone. "And I love you, too much for you to leave again."

"Happy," Toby pushed out his chair and opened his arms for her to settle on his lap and in his warm, safe embrace; Walter and his 'professional decency' be damned. "Sweetheart, are you sure? It's the toast, isn't it? The juice? God, trust Walt to be smart enough to rebuild an illegal Russian rocket but not know when throw away expired food."

She gave him a hint of a smile, because she'll always love that - how he can brighten her up and make her feel good, make her finally feel like her namesake. She needs that; she needs him and his light in her life.

Her fear of rejection spiked through her again though, and she looked up at him nervously. "Do you not want to? Just tell me if you don't want to. I didn't mean to tie you down you or anything. Because it's fine, honestly, I get it. I mean you probably want your own space and -"

Her rambling was cut off by Toby gently lifting her up her chin to press the most gentle yet firm kiss to her lips, pouring into it all the reassurance and love that even all the words in the world wouldn't be able to convey well enough.

"Yes, of course I want to, Hap." He broke the kiss to whisper into her ear, pressing his lips against her temple at every pause. "God, I love you so much. I don't think I tell you enough how much I do. I just don't want you to be pressured into this because of everything that happened."

She shook her head, resolute, shifting off his lap and moving to sit in the chair beside him. "The whole time you were... those six weeks, the only thing I could think of was how much I'd let you down. It's not just that stupid plan, I…" She kicked at the leg of the table, struggling to put her emotions into words. "I hurt you so much, and especially the months just before we got together, most of it was intentional. I was too scared to try, so I self-sabotaged wherever I could."

She looked back up at him, the all too familiar sensation of tears stinging the back of her eyes again. "I took so long to let you in, and then before we could… before we could even be a fraction of what I want us to eventually be, you-" She caught her sob, a hand pressed to her mouth.

The fact that she was crying openly in the garage, where anyone could just walk in on them; he could only imagine how hard she had been blaming herself the whole time she had thought he was gone. Toby knew her well enough to know that at this point, words would do little, if anything, to help. So he just helped her to shift back onto his lap and held her even tighter, peppering light kisses across her face in a silent affirmation of _I'm here, I'm sorry, I'm never leaving you again._

Eventually, her sobs turned into quiet sniffling and she just clung on to Toby, fingers curling into the zippered sides of his open jacket, as if he'd disappear again if she let go of him.

Toby changed tactic, trying to shift them away from the heavy emotions clouding over them and lighten the mood instead.

"Well, it does make sense if you think about it logically," he said, hands rubbing up and down her arms, tilting his head in a way that made him look like a puppy, the look he reserved just for her, that he knew she couldn't resist. "We do spend most of our time at either of our places or the garage, there's no need to be maintaining two rents and utilities and stuff. Living together would be pretty efficient."

Happy smiled at his words, and then scrunched her face. "Toby, if I wanted major decisions like this to boil down to efficiency, I'd be dating Walter."

Toby thumbed away the few remaining tears from her cheeks before scrunching his own face and glancing briefly up at the loft. "Ew."

The two looked at each other for a beat before bursting out laughing, the first real light-hearted moment they'd shared in over two months.

"You're not serious, right?"

"About Walter? No way in hell, Paige can deal with that, if and when she wants to. But I am serious about you moving in. Or rather staying in, I guess, since you've been living here for weeks already." she cocked her head to the side and watched as his smile grew so wide it practically stretched across his whole face.

He kissed her hard, desperately gripping her ever closer into him, and ignoring Sylvester squeak as he accidentally walked in on them, and then practically ran out of the kitchen, apologizing profusely.

"Fantastic," he grinned, not only at what they had just agreed to, but also at how Happy too seemed unfazed by their blatant PDA, for once. He pecked a kiss to her nose, before speaking again, his lips gently brushing against hers as they moved. "Because I'm serious about staying right here by your side. Forever."

* * *

 _We have a little epilogue fic coming out though... maybe a little peak into how a proposal from either side would go, anyone?_

 _Thank you once again for all the amazing support you guys have given us, y'all are so amazing!_

 _Loves!_


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